20 - Merger At Last

Summary

Meanwhile, a gathering storm of external threats was fast looming on the horizon. Failing to halt the momentum in Singapore towards merger, the Barisan had looked abroad for allies, linking up with left-wing opposition parties in Malaya, Sarawak, Brunei, and Indonesia. These parties were opposed to the Malaysia plan, denigrating as a “neo-colonialist plot” for the British to retain power in the region.

Raja made it his duty to track their every statement and analyse their every move, anticipating that the communists and their united front leaders would launch a last-minute effort to sabotage merger and Malaysia. He kept up the pressure on the Barisan, denouncing their actions and banning communist publications, films and performances.

Alarm bells jangled as A.M. Azahari of the Partai Rakyat Brunei led the armed rebellion in Brunei in December 1962. The party's anti-Malaysia aims were backed by the Communist North Borneo National Army (Tentera Nasional Kalimantan Utara or TNKU). In the early hours of 8 December, elements of TNKU launched attacks in Brunei and in nearby areas of Sarawak and North Borneo. From his base in Manila, Azahari proclaimed the Unitary State of Kalimantan Utara, which covered Brunei and areas of Sarawak and North Borneo. British and Gurkha troops from Singapore quickly quelled the uprising, which was declared over on 16 December.

Azahari's political appeal, however, remained potent. Indonesian public support for the rebels’ cause swiftly emerged. Demonstrations were staged in Jakarta, with Indonesian President Sukarno publicly declaring Indonesia's sympathy and hopes for the “new emerging forces”. A war of words erupted with the Tunku accusing Indonesia of inciting the people of the three Borneo territories to oppose their governments, and warning that this would result in calamity.

Six weeks after Azahari's revolt was stamped out, Sukarno — who saw Malaysia as a rival to his Indonesia-centred vision of a Melayu Raya (Greater Malay nation) — declared Indonesia's open, armed hostility to Malaysia. The Confrontation had begun.

The Indonesian navy received orders to fire upon any Malayan fishing boat trespassing in Indonesian waters. The Confrontation, with its slogan “Crush Malaysia”, sharpened the already tense and uncertain situation in Southeast Asia and changed its geopolitical dynamics. As hostilities intensified, Raja's sense of Singapore's vulnerability became even more acute — the tiny island was sandwiched between Malaya and Indonesia, and had no defence of its own to speak of.